The Photo Booth

The Photo Booth

by Antony Smyth

With 3 240 images in this room, you will never tire of staring at the wall. The Photo Booth is about life; the whole grand, big thing that it is, how we see it and how it makes you feel as a part of it. The photos are a combination of nudes, portraits and pictures from Antony’s vast collection.

“If you look at an image for long enough, it always reflects back to you,” says Smyth, “ photographs ask us to see ourselves in relation to the other. For instance, if it is a nude, we wonder if we look like that or perhaps if someone else we know looks like that”. The powerful combination of black and white tones is made even bolder by the use of raised square blocks, which enhance the overall effect of the individual images within the whole.

The portraits of people were collected on a tour of Cape Town, which encompassed people from the townships to seaside Kommetjie, and everything in between. Carrying a camera and a white backdrop hundreds of people were photographed for this project, which literally leaves the guest feeling as if they have seen the people of Cape Town.